The Bureau of Industry and Security will add 37 entities to the Entity List this week for supporting China’s military modernization efforts or Iran’s weapons program and defense industries. The entities, located in China, Georgia, Malaysia and Turkey, will be subject to a license review policy of presumption of denial for all items subject to the Export Administration Regulations. No license exceptions will be available for the entities, BIS also added three additional aliases under Huawei’s Entity List entry. The additions take effect Dec. 17.
The U.S.’s new multilateral export control initiative includes a written “code of conduct” for licensing decisions for sensitive exports and new partnerships with allies to better control emerging technologies. The U.S. effort, previewed earlier this week ahead of the virtual democracy summit (see 2112090030), was officially announced Dec. 10 alongside Australia, Denmark and Norway, and includes support from other trading partners, including Canada, France, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control imposed investment restrictions on SenseTime Group Ltd., a major Chinese technology company, and sanctioned 15 people and 10 other companies for human rights abuses, the agency said Dec. 10. SenseTime, which had prepared to price shares Dec. 10 in its initial public offering in Hong Kong, will now be subject to a U.S. investment ban and added to OFAC’s list of companies with ties to China’s military (see 2106030067).
Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with the top stories for Nov. 29 - Dec. 3 in case you missed them. You can find any article by searching the title or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
The European Union should impose sanctions and export restrictions on Israel-based NSO Group over accusations that the company provided spyware to hack human rights activists and journalists, more than 80 human rights groups and other activists wrote to the EU. In a Dec. 3 letter, the groups said NSO Group’s Pegasus Spyware was reportedly used to hack the devices of Palestinian human rights activists, “further evidence of a pattern of human rights abuses facilitated by NSO Group through spyware sales to governments that use the technology to persecute civil society and social movements in many countries around the world.” The groups, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, pointed to the U.S. Commerce Department’s November decision to add NSO Group to the Entity List (see 2111030010). “The EU should follow suit and urgently put NSO on its global sanction list and take all appropriate action to prohibit the sale, transfer, export, import and use of NSO Group technologies, as well as the provision of services that support NSO Group's products until adequate human rights safeguards are in place,” said the letter, which was addressed to EU member states and Josep Borrell, the EU’s foreign policy chief. The NSO Group didn’t immediately comment.
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The U.S. has “repeatedly stretched the national security concept and abused state power to hobble Chinese companies,” a Chinese Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesperson said last week. The Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security on Nov. 26 added 27 foreign organizations and individuals to its Entity List, including eight technology entities based in China, to prevent U.S. emerging technologies from being used for Beijing’s “quantum computing efforts that support military applications" (see 2111240014). The BIS action “severely hurts the interests of Chinese companies, recklessly undermines the international trade order and free trade rules, and gravely threatens global industrial and supply chains,” the ministry spokesperson said. “China reserves the right to take necessary countermeasures,” he said. “We will firmly defend Chinese companies’ legitimate rights and interests with all necessary measures.”
A group of countries aligned themselves with the European Council's decision to renew for another 12 months, until Nov. 14, 2022, sanctions measures against Venezuelan officials and entities, the EC said Nov. 26 (see 2011120009). Amendments to the statement of reasons for 26 persons on their entity list also were made. The countries are North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Albania, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Georgia.
The Bureau of Industry and Security should clarify that certain hospitals affiliated with entries on the Entity List are not subject to Entity list restrictions, said Tory Tibor, global head of trade compliance for medical device company Olympus. Tibor said the clarification would help address confusion among third parties, including forwarders, about what types of entities are captured by Entity List controls.
The Bureau of Industry and Security added 27 entities to the Entity List for illegally selling technology to China, North Korea and other sanctioned countries, for supporting China’s military modernization efforts or for contributing to Pakistan’s nuclear and missile programs, the agency said Nov. 24. The Entity List additions include a range of laboratories and companies operating in the semiconductor, microelectronics and machinery sectors in China, Japan, Pakistan and Singapore, including several major Chinese chip companies.